Wednesday, 23 May 2012

1975: THE SUPER-HEROES - PART ONE

Today, it's back to 1975, and Marvel UK's weekly anthology THE SUPER-HEROES.

Unlike M-UK's other weeklies to date, this feels like a particularly lacklustre effort pooling The X-Men and Fantastic Four supporting player Silver Surfer in solo action.

It should have been a does-what-it-says-on-the-cover action anthology but it really feels like Marvel New York had nothing much left in reserve for this one, making it largely forgotten today.

- THE SUPER-HEROES is not to be confused with the later monthly DC THE SUPERHEROES (from London Editions), MARVEL SUPERHEROES (the 1979-launched monthly successor to MARVEL COMIC) or even HEROES (the short-lived 1991 DC reprint weekly).
- The initial line-up was the Silver Surfer and The Uncanny X-Men. Reprints of Doc Savage were (briefly) added, from issue 23, to coincide with the campy George Pal flopbuster movie). Savage was replaced by long-forgotten Marvel heroine The Cat and Giant Man. Continuing the trend of distinctly also-rans, The Scarecrow joined from issue 41, followed by Bloodstone from 45. Marvel Two-in-One (The Thing's low key version of Marvel Team-Up) started the same issue, just in time for cancellation with issue 50.
- THE SUPER-HEROES merged with Spider-man to form the long-winded SUPER SPIDER-MAN AND THE SUPER-HEROES from issue 158 (21 February 1976). To accommodate the merger, Spider-man switched to the controversial landscape 'Titans Format'.

ISSUE 1

8 March 1975

ISSUE 1

EDITORIAL

ISSUE 2

15 March 1975

ISSUE 3

22 March 1975

ISSUE 4

29 March 1975

ISSUE 5

5 April 1975

ISSUE 6

12 April 1975

ISSUE 7

19 April 1975

ISSUE 8

26 April 1975

ISSUE 9

3 May 1975

ISSUE 10

10 May 1975

ISSUE 11

17 May 1975

ISSUE 12

24 May 1975

ISSUE 13

31 May 1975

ISSUE 14

7 June 1975

ISSUE 15

14 June 1975

ISSUE 16

21 June 1975

ISSUE 17

28 June 1975

ISSUE 18

5 July 1975

ISSUE 19

12 July 1975

ISSUE 20

19 July 1975

ISSUE 21

26 June 1975

ISSUE 22

2 August 1975

ISSUE 23

9 August 1975

The traditional two-strip format becomes three-a-week with the addition of DOC SAVAGE: MAN OF BRONZE.

SLOW ROBOT

Welcome to STARLOGGED!
It's a repository, and celebration, of Geek Media (mostly print) from the 'Star Age': that pre-millennial period between, roughly, 1972 (the opening of Marvel UK) and 1999 (the release of The Phantom Menace... and the end of innocence). But, of course, we'll bend the rules when we want to.
I only reproduce long out-of-print items for historical reference. I don't include anything that's currently in-print, is likely to be reprinted or otherwise commercially exploited by the copyright holder.
Comments and contributions are most welcome.